“Salute to the Sun” is the kind of album that calms your body instantly (or at least mine), it’s smooth, delicate and somehow gives the feeling that it goes in-depth into the music. Listen to the conversation taking place between the different instruments and see where it takes you.
Along with this article, I have made a selection of art works that I find go along well with the music. As you are listening to the album, you can just read through the article and look at the selection, hopefully creating an interesting experience.
Recommending: Salute to the Sun
written by Lou Touyarou
Just by reading the title of certain songs such as “The Energy of Life” or “Tropical Landscapes”, and later on by listening to the music, you can feel how a strong connection with nature has been important in the creation of this album.
Indeed, in the Bandcamp description of the album, Matthew Halsall mentions this aspect:
“I feel Salute to the Sun is a positive earthy album. I wanted to create something playful but also quite primitive, earthy and organic that connected to the sounds in nature. I was listening to lush ambient field recordings of tropical environments such as jungles and rainforests and found myself drawn to percussive atmospheric sounds which replicated what I was hearing (bells/shakers/chimes/rain sticks) and I started to experiment with more wooden percussive instruments such as kalimba and marimba”.
Indeed, in the Bandcamp description of the album, Matthew Halsall mentions this aspect:
“I feel Salute to the Sun is a positive earthy album. I wanted to create something playful but also quite primitive, earthy and organic that connected to the sounds in nature. I was listening to lush ambient field recordings of tropical environments such as jungles and rainforests and found myself drawn to percussive atmospheric sounds which replicated what I was hearing (bells/shakers/chimes/rain sticks) and I started to experiment with more wooden percussive instruments such as kalimba and marimba”.
The references to Alice Coltrane’s magical harp or to the expressive trumpet of Pharoah Sanders are quite obvious, but the music really goes much further than that and feels like it is giving a sort of modern take on that music style.
The composition of the band most likely explains such a sound. Obviously, although Matthew is the bandleader as well as the trumpet player, he was not alone in the creation of the music and is accompanied by 6 other talented artists, emerging young British artists for the most part (Matt Cliffe, Maddie Herbert, Liviu Gheorghe, Alan Taylor, Jack McCarthy, and Gavin Barris). One can imagine having such profiles as part of the band has really helped in creating this fresh perspective on the music.
The composition of the band most likely explains such a sound. Obviously, although Matthew is the bandleader as well as the trumpet player, he was not alone in the creation of the music and is accompanied by 6 other talented artists, emerging young British artists for the most part (Matt Cliffe, Maddie Herbert, Liviu Gheorghe, Alan Taylor, Jack McCarthy, and Gavin Barris). One can imagine having such profiles as part of the band has really helped in creating this fresh perspective on the music.
Meeting on weekly sessions to play regularly, it also feels like it allowed the band to explore different themes and ideas, grow comfortable with them and make them their own. It is really impressive to hear this perfect balance between all the instruments and does not feel like one is overpowering the others, something that is relatively frequent in Jazz. The album was actually recorded in one of those weekly meetings which can explain this feeling of effortlessness and ease.